[kfisherx]

I believe a lb of muscle is 2700 calories. I am a poor eater (don't like to eat) and therfore can be considered a hard gainer. The bulk is physically always harder for me than the cut. I just completed my second bulk and I ate about 200 cals a day over my daily burn. Over the course of 7 months I added almost 20lbs of which 4-5 of that is water flux.

Beyond the calorie in/calorie out algorightrm (which is really quite straight forward) there is also the training element to consider during the bulk. If you are bulking you want to do training that maximizes muscle gain. In my case, I changed to doing really high volume 2 times a week each body part training. Another option might be the Flex Wheeler style of HIT training. You would not go find a training program based on light weights, high reps or a lot of cardio for example.